Family and Education

s. of Richard Luttrell. m. c.1408, Joan da. of Sir John Hill† j.KB of Hill’s Court, Exeter by his 1st w. Denise, da. of Sir John Durburgh, wid. of Sir John Malet, e. s. of Sir Baldwin Malet of Enmore, and Simon Michel, s.p.1

Offices Held

Constable, Dunster castle by Mar. 1408-d.2

Steward of duchy of Lancaster lordship of Kidwelly 20 July 1415-Feb. 1417.3

Biography

Related to Sir Hugh Luttrell* of Dunster, John was usually described as ‘of Carhampton’, but sometimes as ‘of West Quantockshead’, and it was in the latter place that he held lands and tenements of his kinsman’s barony of Dunster. In the summer of 1403 he transferred 22 marks from Sir Hugh’s receiver in the west of England to the knight when he returned from Calais, and in the course of the next few years he is often found acting with him in a variety of transactions. Sir Hugh sat in the same Parliament of 1406 as a knight of the shire for Devon, and must have welcomed the support of a kinsman there, for the Commons, both in June and November, intervened in proceedings about the inheritance of Dunster, a dispute in which he was challenged by the formidable combination of Edward, duke of York, his wife, Philippa, Elizabeth, countess of Oxford, and Richard, Lord Strange of Knockin.4 If not already, certainly by 1408 John was serving Sir Hugh as constable of Dunster castle, and he had much to do later with the courts of the barony.

Luttrell married a wealthy widow (the sister of Robert Hill* of Spaxton), in whose right in 1417 and 1419 he presented to the church of Oake, the advowson of which belonged to her first husband’s family, the Malets. Similarly, he and his wife enjoyed the income from the manor of Lydeard Malet, as part of her dower. In 1419 Bishop Bubwith of Bath and Wells granted licence to them to have masses and other divine services celebrated in an oratory in their house at Carampton.5

It was very likely this John Luttrell who held the post of steward of Kidwelly; and certainly he who before 1418 was appointed by John, Lord Harington, as a trustee of his estates in Devon and Cornwall, for his sister-in-law, Margaret Hill, was married to Harington’s brother and heir. Luttrell was then also acting as a feoffee for Hugh Courtenay, earl of Devon (d.1422), to whom he was related.6

Luttrell died before May 1421. His estate at Carhampton passed under the terms of an earlier settlement to his namesake, Sir Hugh’s son and heir, and his widow soon married again, for the fourth time.7

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: L. S. Woodger

Notes

H.C. Maxwell Lyte, Hist. Dunster and Fams. Mohun and Luttrell, 111. He is not to be confused with Sir John Luttrell (d. 1403), of East Quantockshead (ibid. 72-74), or with (Sir) John Luttrell (c.1394-1430), s. and h. of Sir Hugh Luttrell of Dunster.

• 1. Some Som. Manors (Som. Rec. Soc. extra ser. 1931), 129.
• 2. Honour of Dunster (Som. Rec. Soc. xxxiii), 132.
• 3. Somerville, Duchy, i. 639.
• 4. Lyte, 79; RP, iii. 577, 597.
• 5. Honour of Dunster, 140; Reg. Bubwith (Som. Rec. Soc. xxix, xxx), 282, 360; Som. Feet of Fines (ibid. xxii), 51; Some Som. Manors, 273-4.
• 6. Som. Feet of Fines, 54; CCR, 1419-22, p. 462; 1422-9, p. 10.
• 7. Honour of Dunster, 171; CCR, 1429-35, pp. 72-73, 75-77.